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Most sales reps hate getting objections. Their hearts sink into their stomachs, their palms start to sweat, and they start wondering how they're going to pay the rent. Sound familiar?

When sales reps ask me how they should handle objections, they are often surprised by my answer. I tell them they shouldn’t answer them, they should isolate them. When they look confused, I explain:

"Let's face it,” I tell them, “most of the time objections are just smokescreens hiding real objections that your prospect doesn't want to disclose. As soon as you begin answering objections, have you ever found that they have another and yet another?"

"Oh, yeah," they say.

“So here's the secret to handling objections: instead of answering an objection, you must first isolate and question it,” I tell them.

To show you all what I mean, let's take two of the most common ones - "Your price is too high," and "I need to speak with, talk to my wife/partner/etc..."

If your client says, "Your price is too high,” before you try to overcome it, isolate it first. Try either:

“Okay, and besides price, what else would prevent you from going with me today?”

This is great in that it gets a prospect to reveal what is hiding behind the price objection. This also works:

"I can understand that, and let me ask you a question -- if this price was exactly what you were willing to pay, is this (your product/service, etc.) the solution you would go with today?"

Now that you've isolated the objection you will see if price really is the only objection. Any answer other than 'yes' means price isn't what is stopping your prospect form moving forward (which means you have more work to do to find out what is!)

Same thing with the "I've got to speak to, talk this over with...." objection. You should say:

"I can totally understand that. And _________ let me ask you -- if you did speak with ________ and they said whatever you thought was fine with them, what would you tend to do next?"

Again, any answer other than “yes” means this objection is just a stall. Answering it will get you nowhere.

Do you understand now why I say, “Don’t answer an objection, isolate it?” Doing so will enable you to uncover what is really holding your prospect back.

And until you find that out, there will be no deal.

So stop answering objections and start isolating them. You will become a much stronger closer, and you'll begin making more sales. Oh, and if they do say no, then you’ll find over 500 other scripts and ways of dealing with objections in my new book, Power Phone Scripts.

Get it today and start closing more sales tomorrow!

Mike has been voted one of the most Influential Inside Sales Professionals for the past seven years by The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, and just won the 2017 Service Provider Award for training and development from the AA-ISP. Mike is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. For more information, you can visit his website: www.MrInsideSales.com

About Mike Brooks

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of Top 20% performance. It started for Mike in 1987 after a failed attempt to own and operate a nightclub. He had just blown every dime he had, maxed out every… more